Chapter 1184 Pioneer
The atmosphere of Christmas is still in the air.
During this week, the North American movie market often triggers a holiday effect. The box office of movies currently being released in theaters has rebounded across the board. Movies are still one of the priorities for thousands of families during holiday gatherings.
This year is no exception——
Movies such as "The Lord of the Rings", "The Butterfly Effect" and "The Matrix 3" are still in theaters; new works such as "A Basket of Children", "Cold Mountain", "Peter Pan", "Memory Cracks" and more All debut this week.
Dazzled and overwhelmed.
In this wave, a trickle snaked from coast to coast. Independent art theaters got the news one after another, and one after another they took action to attract the attention of senior and avid movie fans.
The general public has their own fun at Christmas, and senior movie lovers also have their parties at Christmas, without disturbing each other's carnival.
Houston. Dallas. Seattle. San Francisco. And of course Los Angeles.
All without exception, all are in busy mode.
All because of "elephant".
There is no doubt that the currently screening "Elephant" has nothing to do with the North American weekend box office rankings. The huge gap in the base of screening venues ensures that the movie and the box office blowout will not appear in the same news headline.
However, this still did not affect movie lovers from enjoying the party——
No matter what attitude they have, even if the trolls go to the cinema with a complaining and critical mentality to find fault, they still become part of this wave and quietly become a spectacle this Christmas.
sold out! sold out! sold out!
Everything started at the Angelica Film Center and IFC Film Center in New York. The unexpectedly long queues and the incredible sell-out of the shows caused consternation and exclamations in the independent film circle.
And it spread all the way. Later, screening venues in other cities made timely adjustments, but they still could not avoid the ending of all Friday screenings being sold out.
"The Palme d'Or winning film 'Elephant' was screened today and all performances in North America were sold out!"
Mainstream media, including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, immediately updated the news on their official websites, spreading it widely——
America is shocked!
Even though this is the Palme d'Or, even though this is Anson, and even though people have just marveled at the incredible box office performance of "The Butterfly Effect" in North America, when I see this news at this moment, my brain is still in a storm.
In particular, theater chains in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle have promptly added screens and increased the number of shows, but they are still making little effort and have not been able to stop the wave of movie tickets being sold out.
"In the final analysis, there are still too few theaters."
Vanity Fair hits the nail on the head.
Only Los Angeles and New York are showing it in two theaters each, and all other cities have only one. No matter how the screen is arranged, it still cannot meet the needs of the audience.
"If this was hunger marketing, there's no doubt they were wildly successful; now the real possibility is that HBO didn't see it coming either."
"So, here comes the problem."
"How long can this wave last? What is the attendance rate on Saturday and Sunday? After the audience's curiosity and impulse subside, what will be the subsequent reputation of the film? How should the film's subsequent expansion be arranged?"
"This is the biggest unknown."
"Of course, before these unknowns come to a conclusion, 'Elephant' has already won. This independent work cost only three million US dollars to produce, and there is no problem in recovering the cost. It may even become a rare example of HBO's film investment in recent years. Profitable works, they are already winners." Hot discussion, attention and focus.
During the Christmas period, other works were competing fiercely, including "The Butterfly Effect", but unexpectedly, "Elephant" quietly stole the topic, making people curious about the next development of the film.
As "Vanity Fair" said, Friday is just the beginning. What about Saturday and Sunday? What about the second, third and subsequent weeks?
This time, even HBO is paying attention——
HBO has no expectations or set any goals for the box office of "Elephant". Their plan is to let the movie cause topic promotion on the big screen, and then attract viewers to return to the TV screen and subscribe to HBO.
Anyway, HBO has no ambitions for the awards season prospects of "Elephant". At the very beginning, "Elephant" was an experimental TV movie. The current position of this work has far exceeded expectations. .
However, when it opened on Friday, it was sold out nationwide.
Things suddenly changed.
Amid the hustle and bustle, the importance of "Elephant"'s media reviews and theater ratings skyrocketed, attracting countless attention in an instant.
As a friendly reminder, "Elephant" only received a 2.1 rating in the official Cannes showbook.
A score of 2.1 out of four points is a failing grade.
Obviously, Friday's sell-out is an unintended result of hungry marketing. If "Elephant"'s overall media reviews are unsatisfactory and curiosity and expectations cool down, the film's follow-up trend should be off a cliff. diving.
After all, "Elephant" is different from the "Butterfly Effect". It is difficult for such an art film to attract the masses through controversy, and it is difficult to create a wave of heated discussions.
For them, media reviews do play a key role.
At the first moment, Roger Ebert stepped forward, did not hide his position at all, and stood behind the "elephant" without hesitation.
Previously in Cannes, Roger gave "Elephant" a perfect four-point rating; now returning to the North American continent, he continued his attitude in the "Chicago Sun" and gave all the praise to "Elephant" without hesitation. ".
One hundred percent!
"If I were to choose the only film that must be watched among all the films during this year's awards season, I would recommend 'Elephant', not because it is so good or perfect; it is precisely because of its imperfections that make it real and at the same time Let it bring more excitement after the end.”
"While we are pursuing perfection in artistic creation, more perfect scripts, more perfect character arcs, more perfect performances, and more perfect theme expressions are gradually losing their roots in reality in the mature industrial production system of Hollywood. Incomplete and vigorous. ”
"All the way to 'Elephant.'"
"It reminds us why we create art. Not for awards, not for box office, but to explore ourselves, explore society, and explore life."
This scene is rare.
Roger wrote reviews for the same movie twice, and both times received full marks; he also reviewed the movie from different angles and gave the movie top praise.
Roger's love for this work can be seen from just one small gesture.
After "The Butterfly Effect", Roger praised Anson's starring work for the second time in a short period of time. This treatment is also rare in Hollywood.
No wonder some people ridiculed that Anson's brilliant debut at the Cannes Film Festival this year not only conquered movie fans and French audiences, but also conquered Roger Ebert.
Who would have thought that the Pulitzer Prize winner would become Anson's biggest fan?
(End of chapter)